How Asking God Shapes our Desire

Monday, January 14, 2008
Bryan Hudson
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Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

James 4:1, Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures

The source of both our greatest problems and greatest solutions resides within us. Our biggest obstacle is not with people, or even the devil, but with ourselves. Plato wrote, "The sole cause of wars and revolutions and battles is nothing other than the body and its desires." While desire is at the root of all the evils which ruin life and divide men, desire is also the most powerful motivation for choosing to live a victorious life.

James characterizes this conflict of competing desires as “wars” and “fights.” The solution to resolving this inner conflict is as simple as this: “Ask God.” The scripture says that "we have not, because we ask not."

Jesus said that we should "ask, seek and knock." These are levels of confidence in receiving from God. Asking builds confidence in our relationship with God. Seeking and finding confirms God as our source. Knocking represents a stable relationship where we know that access is always granted.

Asking God is the gateway to restoration, blessing and correction in the area of our desires. By asking, we reach to God for help. This has the effect of re-shaping and transforming our desires.

Implicit in asking is humility, and an acknowledgment of our inability to faithfully follow God without His grace. Asking puts us in a special place where God has complete access to us.

16 So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed. 17 I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place.

Jesus taught about the importance of a good foundationLuke 6:48-49

48He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 49But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."

Paul offered instruction on foundations for the future1 Timothy 6:18-20

18Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. 20Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge